Sooner Surrender
by christmasinacup
Summary: A "Dig For Fire" post-reveal story - Joan and Arthur are thrilled about having a child, but it doesn't change the fact that their marriage needs work. One-shot.


Another request from kaitlin1198, hope you guys all love it :) Comment with what gender you think baby Campbell will be!

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Joan opened the bathroom door awkwardly, a sheepish smile on her face. Arthur was staring at the floor, and he looked up at her with wide eyes.

"Are you really pregnant?"

She nodded. His face broke out into a huge grin and he wrapped his arms around her.

"Honey, that's wonderful. I mean, it's unexpected, but..." He pulled away and looked at her, smiling. "... I'm so excited about this. And now I feel even worse about the last few days. I let you down when you probably needed me most."

Joan smiled weakly. "I did figure it out, so I wasn't as broken up about it as I would have been."

Arthur was trying to read Joan, trying to tell if she was angry or not. He cupped her face, kissing her tenderly, and she felt a bit of release. Her hormones had made her miss him even more than normal.

She grabbed his face and kissed him back passionately, not wanting to come up for air. She was pregnant, her hormones were off the charts, and she was feeling ridiculously horny.

After coming up for air for a few seconds, Joan initiated another fiery kiss, making her way down Arthur's neck. He responded by nipping at her ear and sucking on her bottom lip.

"Where's the…" Joan breathed, panting in a very hot way. "… the bedroom?"

Arthur grinned, kissing her neck. He chuckled and swung her up into his arms, fireman style, carrying Joan into the suit's bedroom. He dropped her on the bed and she raced to unbutton her shirt as Arthur pulled his sweater over his head. Arthur leaned over his wife on the bed, undoing her jeans as she tossed her shirt across the room, then pulled off her camisole.

She reached to undo Arthur's belt, but she stopped her, grabbing her wrist. He guided their hands to her stomach, where a small bump had already started to form. Joan grinned and pulled Arthur down on top of her, kissing him again.

Arthur pulled his belt off and made his way down Joan's neck to her breasts, kissing her skin and making her shiver with pleasure.

"Oh, Arthur," Joan moaned softly, burying her face in his neck. "We – this is… I think I like being pregnant."

Arthur laughed and sat up on his knees, putting his hands on her tummy again. He winked at her and slid his hand farther south, until he saw Joan gasp. She grabbed his face and pulled him down on top of her again, capturing his mouth with hers.

It had been a while since they had been this fierce in bed, and both of them were falling more and more into it with every moment. The adrenaline of Joan's hormones combined with the heat of the moment drove them through the night, as they ignored all the things unsaid.

The next morning, Arthur woke up to see Joan buttoning up her jeans. He smiled drowsily.

"Hey, baby."

She smiled weakly and walked over to the bed, sitting on the edge of it. She looked at Arthur sadly, sitting there in her jeans and black bra.

"Why didn't you tell me about Teo before? All these years, you've been carrying this around, and you never told me. Don't say you foresaw a polygraph and this whole mess, because no one would ever believe that. I understand the polygraph move, I do. But it's also hard for me to process all of this."

"Joan, I don't know why I didn't tell you. I guess I was just always waiting for the right moment."

Joan sighed. "This isn't even just about Teo, Arthur. Why don't you want to tell me things? You're closed off, to a point that is hard for me to continue to handle."

Arthur sat up and took her hand. "Joan, every single thing I do, I do to protect you."

"Except resigning," Joan said softly. "That was for Teo."

"And for you. If word got out about Teo, everyone would assume you knew."

"But I didn't. Arthur, I love you, but please don't treat me like I'm fragile. I've done bad things too, okay? I'm a spy, none of us are ever safe. As much as you might like to think that you can keep me safe from most things, the reality is that you can't."

She bent over and picked her shirt up off the floor and buttoned it. She stood up, slipping into her heels. Joan looked at her husband; the look in her eyes both sad and very much in love.

"I need a husband, not a bodyguard. Especially now," she said to Arthur, walking over to him. She bent over and placed a soft kiss on his cheek.

"This should be a happy time in our lives. I don't want it clouded by agency politics or hidden things from the past," she said, walking towards the doorway of the bedroom. "But until you can tell me why you never told me about Teo all these years, I don't know if I want you to come home."

"Joan, I told you –"

"No, you didn't. I need a real answer, and I need you to be straight with me."

She took a few more steps and then turned around.

"Honey, I love you so much. Just give me some space and do some thinking, and then we can talk. About all of this." She put her hand on her stomach. "I want this child to grow up with parents who trust each other. Please let that be us." She was almost blinking back tears at this point, and she had to turn and walk away.

Arthur just stood there, staring at the bedroom door and he heard the door to the suite close.

"Fuck," he whispered, tossing a pillow at the doorway. His head fell into his hands, and he closed his eyes, rubbing his temples and wishing he had said something more than "I don't know why I didn't tell you."

But he hadn't, because he honestly didn't know.

xxxx

The next evening, Joan was sitting on the couch and watching the news when she heard a knock at the door. She got up and walked to the door, tugging her comfy sweater tighter around her body.

She opened the door and saw Arthur standing there, hands in his pockets and a hopeful look on his face. She couldn't help but feel grateful to see him, but she tried to keep her face neutral.

"Hey," she whispered. She took a few steps back and let Arthur walk into the foyer and close the door behind him.

"So, I did a lot of thinking," Arthur said, looking at his wife's beautiful face. She nodded, prompting him to continue.

"Right after we got married, I learned that Teo had joined ACL. I struggled with telling you, because it's such a prominent and violent group. Eventually, I decided that you had to know, regardless of who Teo was and what he had done. But then we had fertility problems, I felt like telling you I already had a child would hurt your feelings and I couldn't bear to see you any sadder than you were at this time."

Joan nodded slowly. "I didn't realize he was in ACL."

"Yeah, he's a wild card. The older he got, the less he wanted to see of me, and now… it just makes it harder."

"You resigned because of this? And made up a fake affair just to cover it up?"

Arthur nodded. "The affair didn't need to stick, I just needed to buy some time. Joan, I'm having a hard time with this too. I resigned to protect my son, who is part of a well-known rebel group. But I liked my job, and I thought I be there for a while. The news has been calling me a lifer –"

Joan rolled her eyes, obviously at her disapproval of Arthur watching the news coverage of his resignation. He never could stop himself from watching the news when he was on it, even though it never did him any good.

"- and I have to admit that I really didn't have time to think this whole thing through. I don't know what to do now."

Joan sighed and took a step towards him.

"Thank you for telling me all of this," she said to Arthur, putting her hand on his cheek. Arthur closed his eyes, savoring her soft touch.

"This needs to become the new normal, okay?," she asked looking into his now open eyes. "Yes, we work at the CIA, and some things are clandestine, but on matters like this, we need to have full disclosure."

"I think that's fair," Arthur said, smiling. "And once the dust settles, we can figure out how to get past this whole mess. But until then, I just want to be here for you and the baby."

Joan smiled. "I'd like that."

Arthur took her face in his hands and kissed her gently, all his fears melting away. They broke apart and walked back to the couch, where Joan switched off the tv and snuggled into Arthur's arms.

After a few moments of silence, Arthur kissed Joan's hair and said, "Honey, when we were at the Atlas Room, did you try to tell me about the baby?"

Joan laughed. "Yes, I did."

Arthur laughed too. "That was your segway? 'So, here's something..' ?"

Joan nodded, laughing again. "Yeah."

Arthur grinned and kissed her cheek. "Not the best."

She shook her head, still smiling brightly. "No, no it was not. I guess we're not the masters of good timing."

"Except for this," Arthur said, putting his hand on Joan's stomach. "This wonderful baby has perfect timing."

Joan nodded in agreement. "Yes, yes they do."


End file.
